Remember, Cubs fans: Chicago still has a chance to make the 1995 song 'Cubs In Five' come true
After Tuesday night's 6-0 loss to strikeout sorcerer
The opening track on the Mountain Goats' 1995 EP Nine Black Poppies runs through a list of the most unlikely circumstances -- say, returning to an old love -- and its chorus begins with the promise that "the Chicago Cubs will beat every team in the league." At the time, the Cubs hadn't beaten every team in the league in 87 years and hadn't even been to a World Series in 50. But the song is also about hope -- and a Cubs championship probably isn't even the unlikeliest assertion in the song.
On Wednesday morning ahead of Game 2 (7 p.m. ET game time on FOX), John Darnielle, longtime Cubs fan and singer and songwriter behind the Mountain Goats, wrote for Slate about his inspiration for the song and what it means for Cubs fans this year:
"Because that's how it is when you're a fan: You keep cheering, even when the circumstances might tell a less devoted partisan to seek out fairer pastures. You play nine innings. You keep hoping. … When the Cubs win the World Series this year, we long-game fans and hopeless lovers will notch what we've all learned, over the years, is a rare thing in this world: the awaited victory. The W on the flag. The substance of things hoped for."
So, remember: The Indians may have won Game 1, but Cubs fans have an anthem for the next four games.
And if Darnielle's prediction comes true 21 years later, it'll be just a little less impressive than this yearbook quote from 1993.
